December 2016
News Analysis
“My duty as a Citizen”: A personal account of the coup
attempt in Turkey
Mehmet Ümit Necef
News
On 15. July 2016 some officers of the Turkish army, allegedly followers of the
so-called Fethullah Gülen Movement, staged a coup. The coup attempt was
suppressed the next day. In the clashes 248 people died and 2,800 were
wounded.
Summary
The author, who was in Istanbul during the coup attempt, presents his own
experiences and observations. He has been witness to the self-organisation of
some citizens before President Erdogan called on the people to go out and fight
against the putschists. This was the first time in Turkish history that civilians
took to the streets to defend their votes and the politicians. It is argued that the
coup attempt, in which military units opened fire on civilians, will in the long
run have a secularising effect on the Turkish Sunnis.
Key Words
Coup d’etat in Turkey, Erdogan, secularization
About the Author
M. Ümit Necef is an associate professor. He writes inter alia about Turkish
politics.
M. Ümit Necef: “My duty as a Citizen”: A personal account of the coup attempt in Turkey
Account and Analysis:
I got caught up in the middle of the coup attempt on 15 July while on vacation in
Istanbul last summer. After an evening with a friend in a bar in a Southern district of the
city, Aksaray, I decided to go home before midnight so as not to risk missing one of the
last buses to the Taksim Square. At the bus stop, which normally is full of people on
Friday evenings, there was only one young man busy writing messages on his phone.
After some time I asked him why the buses were not coming. He broke the news to me:
“Didn’t you hear, brother, that there is a coup going on in the country? All buses have
been cancelled” and he showed me his phone: “Coup attempt. Army units in uprising”.
Fortunately I found a dolmus instead, which took off immediately filled with people
anxious to get home. There was a long line of vehicles on the Unkapani Bridge, which
connects the Northern and Southern sides of the Golden Horn. The Northern end of the
bridge was blocked by soldiers, and a couple of hundred people had gathered in front of
the military vehicles. The crowd was growing and becoming more impatient. Suddenly
people began to run away from the blockade, and I felt the nasty burning feeling of tear
gas in my nose and eyes. Tear gas was thrown at ordinary people, whose sole aim was
to get home. This indiscriminate aggressive attitude towards civilians, whose paths
somehow crossed those of the coup plotters, got worse as the night unfolded, and
brutality was a characteristic of the coup attempt generally.
Among the people in panic there was a young woman in bare feet who was fleeing the
tear gas and screaming at the same time “I lost my son. He is back there”. The tear gas
clouds began to disperse, and she went back to look after her son. The putschists had
apparently given no thought to the fact that they were disrupting the daily life of
ordinary people, and that when you throw tear gas at a group of people, there may be
children in the crowd.
“My duty as a citizen”
I decided to try my luck at the new metro bridge nearby. At the beginning of the bridge,
I met a middle-aged man who began to comment on the coup attempt after exchanging
some introductory words with me. He was originally from the Central Anatolian town
of Kayseri and was on his way to Taksim Square to join up with his friends to stand
against the coup, which he said was his “duty as a citizen”. He said that he had
experienced four military interventions in his life, and that he didn’t want to see another
one succeed in toppling a government elected by the people. He was quite determined
and poetic about his stance. He made comments such as: “I want to be able look in the
eyes of my grandchildren without feeling shame. This time these bloody officers will
not be able to steal the power from the people”.
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M. Ümit Necef: “My duty as a Citizen”: A personal account of the coup attempt in Turkey
During this conversation he was constantly in contact with his friends on the phone
discussing with them whether they should gather at the Taksim Square or at the Vatan
Boulevard in Aksaray. Towards the end of the bridge, he got a call and turned to me and
said, “There are enough people in Taksim trying to stop the military, but they need
reinforcement at the Vatan Boulevard”. He extended his hand, shook my hand firmly
and said, “Let Allah protect you” and turned back and walked toward the Southern end
of the bridge.
Supersonic booms
It was a great relief to see that there were no soldiers or military vehicles at the Northern
end of the metro bridge. The two hour walk in the heat of the summer night from the
metro bridge to my lodgings near Taksim Square was tiring but undramatic. However,
things changed once I had arrived back. Taksim is the central square in Istanbul, and its
symbolic value is strong for the Turks. Any putschist would likely want control of the
square. In the silence of the night without the hum of traffic, I could hear bomb
explosions, machine gun fire, the loud chopping sound of helicopters and the roaring of
military jets flying high over the city. The worst came later in the night in the form of
the sonic booms of low flying F-16s, six times one after the other with about five
minutes between each. They were most likely meant to terrorize the civil population and
force them to stay at home. Immediately after the sonic booms one could hear the
windows cracking and glass falling to the street.
“Is this my fight?”
I admired the engagement and civil courage of the man from Kayseri and the people I
saw on the television trying to stop the tanks and other military vehicles by standing or
lying in front of them, but at no moment did the idea that I should join them occur to
me. I was very frightened and did not want to get wounded, injured or possibly killed in
the clashes. I was definitely against the coup d’etat, but in my mind I also accused
President Erdogan of polarizing society with his often fiery rhetoric and thus creating
fertile soil for a coup. I kept on asking myself, “Is this my fight? Do I want to be a part
of it?” and I could not answer with a definitive yes, that I would be motivated to go out
and take part in the fight.
At home I followed developments mainly on CNN Türk. Towards dawn the noise of the
bombs, machine guns and F-16s died out. It seemed as if the coup attempt was defeated.
There was no need to follow the news anymore.
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M. Ümit Necef: “My duty as a Citizen”: A personal account of the coup attempt in Turkey
Self-organization of the people against the coup
As the stories of those who resisted the coup attempt as soon as they had heard about it
gained increasing publicity, it became clear that people both pro and anti-AKP had
begun to organize resistance immediately after the coup was started at 10.00 pm.
Erdogan showed himself live on screen for the first time at 12.26 am on CNN-Türk via
a Face-Time interview and called on the people to take to the streets.1 For example, my
encounter with the man from Kayseri took place before President Erdogan had made his
call. It has to be pointed out that CNN-Türk is a secular and AKP-critical channel, and
its headquarters was among media outlets attacked by a pro-AKP mob ten months
earlier. Moreover, the newsanchor who came up with the idea to call Erdogan at his
hotel in Marmaris and conduct a live interview with him was the prominent journalist
Hande Firat. The picture showing her looking into the camera with a grave expression
on her face and holding her phone up so viewers could see Erdogan talking has become
one of the iconic images of the coup attempt. Firat’s interview with Erdogan was one of
the turning points of the event, one which sealed the fate of the coup plotters.
First time in Turkish history
Probably the most important aspect of this incident is that masses took to the streets to
protest against a military coup for the first time in Turkish history. The country
experienced three direct coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980 and an indirect military
intervention in politics in 1997. In none of these cases did the people came out to protest
the coup in defense of the government. The majority was either scared or thought a
military intervention was necessary. However, this time many citizens decided to fight
back, and the main factor was possibly the AKP’s local party organisations, which with
the help of mobile phones and social media directed their members to the streets even
before Erdogan emerged on CNN Türk’s screen. That ordinary unarmed people
prevented a military coup will probably have long term repercussions in Turkish
politics, at least by significantly diminishing the military’s political influence.
An investigation was carried out among participants in the Democracy Watch Meetings
ten days after the coup attempt. It showed that the man from Kayseri was among the 27
percent who had taken to the streets before Erdogan’s Face-Time call. 53 percent had
gone to the streets after Erdogan’s call and the remaining 16 percent after the coup
attempt was suppressed.2
1
Erez, Firat 2016: “Bulanık bir medya ve cadı avı” (Murky media and witch hunt). Serbestiyet, 26.
Nocember.
2
KONDA 2016: “’Demokrasi nöbeti’ katilimcilarinin yüzde 84’ü AKP’li (84 pct. of the demonstrators
are pro-AKP). Konda.org
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M. Ümit Necef: “My duty as a Citizen”: A personal account of the coup attempt in Turkey
Plurality on the Taksim Square
For the following 20 days the AKP organized a Democracy Watch Meeting every
evening, which lasted late into the night until three or four o’clock. Since I lived near
Taksim Square, I had the chance to observe the demonstrations almost every evening.
Two aspects about these demonstrations were noteworthy. During the first evening and
night, from the huge loudspeakers placed on the square one could only hear a song
about Erdogan, which praises him among other things as “the lion of an epos, which
begins with a poem” and as “the strong voice of the nation”. However, the music played
by the organizers became more varied as the days passed, and one could also hear
popular patriotic songs praising the motherland and even Atatürk. By this music choice,
the organizers probably intended to attract and include people with different political
tendencies, not only AKP followers.
Another remarkable aspect of the anti-coup demonstrations was the variety of the
participants: many women of different ages, with and without headscarf, women with
both “religiously proper” and more “Western” clothes as well as men of all ages with
“Islamic” beards and clean shaven faces. In my eyes this reflected both the plurality of
the grassroots of the AKP and the people opposing the coup attempt. I had even the
chance to converse (and take selfies) with a number of Kurds. In fact, the abovementioned survey showed that 12 percent of the participants at the Democracy Watches
were Kurds.
“Allahu Akbar” and the secular intellectual
Immediately after the coup, some secular and left-wing intellectuals questioned the
genuineness of the coup and asked whether Erdogan himself was behind the coup. They
claimed that the whole thing was merely Erdogan’s “theater” to magnify his prestige
and power. This claim was rejected by large segments of the Turkish intelligentsia as a
far out conspiracy theory and it died out rather fast, at least among mainstream pundits.
Many pointed out that one can justifiably criticize Erdogan for making use of the coup
attempt to fortify his power, but this fact does not necessarily mean that he himself
planned or instigated the coup.
A second subject of greater importance was whether a secular or a left-leaning person
would participate in demonstrations where thousands shouted “Ya Allah! In the name of
God! God is the greatest!”, which is a popular slogan used during demonstrations by
Islamists of different shades. Murat Belge, one of Turkey’s most prominent and
respected socialist intellectuals, formulated this dilemma in a question: “What place do I
have among people who took to the streets with the slogan “Ya Allah! In the name of
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M. Ümit Necef: “My duty as a Citizen”: A personal account of the coup attempt in Turkey
God! God is the greatest!”?”3 Belge, together with many left-wing intellectuals
conceded that they were against the coup attempt, which they believed the Gülenists
were behind, and that it had to be opposed. They also admitted that it was very
important and positive that thousands took to the streets and fought against armed
putschists, and that so many people did so was an important milestone in Turkish
history. Even Erdogan had to watch out now, now that the people saw that masses in the
streets can have some political clout. However, the argument continued, since
democratic and secular slogans were not to be heard very much in these so-called
Democracy Watches, it would not be proper to take part in them.
On the other hand, a number of other secular left-wing intellectuals4 argued that people
all over the world mobilize their own religious and cultural arsenal of beliefs, symbols
and slogans in times of crisis, and that it is expected and very natural that citizens of
Turkey, the Muslims that they are, mobilize Islamic elements from their cultural tool
kit. “What do you expect in a Muslim country?” asked historian Cemil Kocak, “Did you
really imagine that people would chant Christmas psalms, but not recite the Islamic
Creed, while they are walking towards possible death?”. Thus, it was positive that
people took to the streets at all to defend their votes and politicians, the slogans they
shouted notwithstanding.
The survival of the nation
The pro-Erdogan media was quick to present the coup not as an internal fight among
Muslims but as an American onslaught against the nation and Islam, thus a case of
survival. In this universe of conspiracies, the putschists were merely the henchmen of
the “West”. As the prominent liberal intellectual Etyen Mahcupyan puts it, the nation is
actually going through “a period of delirium in which self-deceit has become a national
occupation, ignorance is being sanctified and comprehension is handed over to
ideological rituals”.5
It is becoming ever clearer that President Erdogan is misusing the coup attempt to
strengthen his power base by having politicians, journalists, academics and intellectuals
who oppose his policies arrested and critical media outlets closed. Thus, the people of
Turkey are missing this exceptional opportunity to unite and establish a real democratic
3
Belge, Murat 2016: Sokaklar, meydanlar (The streets and the squares) t24, 23. August.
Berktay, Halil 2016: Murat neden sokağa çıkamamış? (Why did not Murat take to the streets?”
Serbestiyet, 28. August; Koçak, Cemil 2016: “Halk sokağa çıkınca vatandaş darbe yapamadı” (When the
people took to the streets, the citizens could not stage a coup”), Yeni Şafak, 30 July. Başer, Ertuğrul 2016:
“Bir fatiha: arkadaşım Ahmet Aşık’ın ruhuna mektup” (A letter to my friend Ahmet Asik’s soul).
Serbestiyet, 30 July.
5
Mahcupyan, Etyen 2016: “Inandigimizi gercek sanarak” (Imagining our beliefs to be the reality). Karar,
27. November.
4
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M. Ümit Necef: “My duty as a Citizen”: A personal account of the coup attempt in Turkey
system. This would naturally include purging the putschists and their supporters in the
civil and military bureaucracy, but the government is laying off or arresting many other
people, who have nothing to do either with the Gülenist putsch or with the PKK, but
who potentially can be a threat to its power.
Secularising effect in the long-run
However, in the long run the putsch will most probably have a secularizing effect on the
pious Sunnis, the largest section of Turkish society, since this was a dramatic
showdown between two similar groups within the pious Sunni Turks: the Gülen
Movement and the AKP. Whenever the pious Sunni Turks get involved in a political
conflict with another group, at least in the last one hundred years, the other side has
almost always been either the secularists, the Alevi minority, the Kurds or nonMuslims, and this circumstance has often blocked self-criticism within the Sunni
Turkish community. This is the first time in modern Turkish history where both sides
are near copies of each other. Many family members have landed on opposite sides of
the conflict. By all appearances, this circumstance will probably in the long run have a
cathartic effect on the minds of the Sunnis.
There is another circumstance which may possibly have a secularizing effect: all the
secularist politicians and the secularist media opposed the coup attempt from the start.
From now on, it will be more difficult for Erdogan and other AKP politicians to accuse
the secular opposition of being anti-islamic, unpatriotic or disrespectful of the political
choices of the majority. For the time being he can get away with authoritarian policies
by presenting the purges of oppositional persons and the media, including the Kurdish
politicians, as necessary measures for the “survival of the nation” and for defending it
against the lackeys of the West. In passing, it has to be pointed out that the PKK’s
ongoing armed struggle in the mountains and terrorist attacks in the cities serve his
interests well.
In the absence of any noteworthy popular protest against Erdogan, Turkey’s best bet at
the moment seems to be that supporters of the AKP, such as the courageous man from
Kayseri, take to the streets again, this time to protest against their own party. Hopefully,
248 persons did not die and 2800 people did not get wounded in the evening and night
of Friday, 15 July merely to facilitate Erdogan’s path to becoming the authoritarian
leader he aspires to be.
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